Curse of a Beating Heart
by hp1piececraziness
Summary: Elise Skellington was born with a beating heart in the undead community of Halloween Town. She's always viewed this trait as a curse. It's prevented her from doing many things, such as taking part in Halloween. But, when an exception is made to that rule, an incident traps Elise in the Land of the Living, where a living couple, Victor and Victoria Van Dort, takes her in.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. Both belong to Tim Burton.**

**Author's Note: This is my first Burton Crossover fan fiction. Corpse Bride characters will come into play later in the story, although there are some Corpse Bride teams in the early chapters/prologue. **

**The prologue was purposely made a little vague. It's not as interesting as the rest of the story, but stay with me! The beginning of the story is pretty light-heated by my standards, but it gets darker later. **

**Reviews are welcomed and apprecitated, but no flames!**

**Enjoy!**

Prologue

The grave of Jack Skellington was a passageway between two worlds. Well, at least he used it that way, once a year on October 31 specifically. He did not use that passage very often. He went through it once to get to the Land of the Living, and another time to get back to the Town of Halloween when the annual nightly excitement of his holiday was done. It was simple like that year after year.

Well, it was usually like that. There was an exception once, and it was a significant one too.

Halloween was nowhere close to being over when the faint creaking of a coffin opening echoed through the Halloween Town graveyard that night. Jack leapt out of his grave and immediately began to make his way out of the grave yard, taking long strides over the tombstones as he went.

In a matter of minutes, he had reached the town square. The only sound was the rustling of dead leaves being blown around by The Wind.

Jack had never seen the town square so deserted before, not that its emptiness was surprising; most of the other citizens of Halloween Town were busy spreading fear throughout the Land of the Living. That was what he would have been doing also, if there weren't more important matters at hand.

He did not linger in the square. There was no time for that. Jack quickened his pace and headed down one of the streets, towards his home, where those who had not taken part in the annual scaring were waiting.

The gates of the manor came into view. Someone was waiting by the steps. It was one of the witches. Jack ran up to her.

"Jack," she said. "Sally will be glad that you're here."

"How is she?" asked Jack.

"Everything went well," replied the witch. "She's inside with her father and Jewel. The child was born a short while ago…"

They ascended the stairs leading up to the door of the manor.

"The child is fine also, I assume," said Jack.

The witch hesitated; this worried him.

"Your daughter is healthy," she replied. "But there is something a little bit strange…"

"What would that be?" asked Jack apprehensively.

"She's… alive," said the witch.

There was a short pause.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Jack.

"She breathes," replied the witch. "Her heart beats."

If Jack's own heart was beating, it would have stopped at that moment. He wasn't sure whether the witch spoke the truth, but he couldn't find any reason that she'd lie to him, especially about such a thing.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, Jack had finally regained his voice.

"Thank you for doing this," he told the witch. "You can go join the rest of the town in the Land of the Living if you please."

The witch nodded and said, "Good-bye, Jack. I wish you and Sally good-luck with the child."

She turned to leave and Jack stepped inside. The entrance hall was dark, but there was a little orange light floating towards him. Jack smiled as his little ghost dachshund, Zero, came into view. The dog followed him upstairs, where he heard voices.

He found the room where Sally's voice was coming from and knocked on the door. Jewel let him in.

Sally was lying on a bed, with a child in her arms. Jack knelt beside her. When he got slightly closer, he heard it: the distinct steady heartbeat of a living infant.

Yes, the girl was not undead like her parents or the rest of her town. She would grow up living amongst the dead. This was certainly not normal, but then again, Jack had never been too fond of "normal."


End file.
